Admission by Julie Buxbaum Published by Delacorte Press
Published: December 1, 2020
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From the New York Times bestselling author of Tell Me Three Things comes an of-the-moment novel that peeks inside the private lives of the hypercompetitive and the hyperprivileged and takes on the college admissions bribery scandal that rocked the country.
It's good to be Chloe Wynn Berringer. She's headed off to the college of her dreams. She's going to prom with the boy she's had a crush on since middle school. Her best friend always has her back, and her mom, a B-list Hollywood celebrity, may finally be on her way to the B+ list. It's good to be Chloe Wynn Berringer--at least, it was, until the FBI came knocking on her front door, guns at the ready, and her future went up in smoke. Now her mother is under arrest in a massive college admissions bribery scandal. Chloe, too, might be facing charges, and even time behind bars. The public is furious, the press is rabid, and the US attorney is out for blood.
As she loses everything she's long taken for granted, Chloe must reckon not only with the truth of what happened, but also with the examination of her own guilt. Why did her parents think the only way for her to succeed was to cheat for her? What did she know, and when did she know it? And perhaps most importantly, what does it mean to be complicit?
I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
When the college admissions scandal broke I was glued to the news like a lot of others. I couldn’t believe what was happening and wanted to know more. So when I heard about Admission and how it was inspired by the scandal I was really interested and excited to see a fictionalized version of it. And although I enjoyed it, a lot of the time I felt like I was reading the news and there was just a little too much going on in the long run.
Admission is about Chloe, the daughter of a B-List celebrity, who is thrilled when her dream of going to SCC comes true. She never expected to get in after she bombed the SATs and was told she needed to lower her college expectations. But when her mother hires her a private college coach and her SAT scores go up 240 points Chloe thinks things are looking up. That is until the FBI shows up. Now her mother is facing a possible prison sentence and Chloe has to face what she really knew about what was going on and if that makes her just as guilty as her parents. Told in past and present chapters Admission is about what it means to be rich and to have privilege and how far does “I didn’t know” really take someone.
First what I really liked about Admission was Chloe. She wasn’t a bad person. She wanted to go to college and was trying to things the right way. Or at least conniving herself she was doing it the right way. She would have been fine if she didn’t get into SCC and she knew that, but her parents wanted it for her as much as she wanted it so she didn’t fight as hard as she should have when things seemed sketchy. I also liked that she was willing to listen when people would tell her she needed to see the kind of privilege she has. She was willing to learn from her experiences and she was willing to take her consequences from her actions. I really like that. I also loved her sister, Isla. She was the highlight of the secondary characters and I kind of want a book just about her. My problem with Admission was there were side stories that I didn’t think got the attention they deserved. They seemed to be added to bring more awareness to these problems that people face everyday, but they also seemed like side thoughts that didn’t have enough attention. They deserved more then they got so that took away from some of the book.
All in all Admission was an interesting read. It left me with a lot of feelings and information to unpack. It was entertaining and got me thinking about how some of those kids felt after the scandal broke. Was it perfect? No. But it was definitely worth the read.
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